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Chad Hugo Says Neptunes Have Been Working With the Weeknd, JAY-Z, Lil Uzi Vert, and More

Trace William Cowen is a writer based in Los Angeles. He tweets with dramatic irregularity here.

Jan 09, 2020

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Image via Getty/Kevin Winter

The incomparable Neptunes are again in "full-time" music industry improvement mode.

That's one of several takeaways from a new interview with Chad Hugo, whose production work with his Neptunes other half Pharrell Williams has helped shape the sound of modern music for decades now. Speaking with Clash, Hugo detailed some of the work the two have been putting in as of late and looked back on what made their initial breakthrough so unique for its time.

"I'm focusing on The Neptunes stuff, getting back on The Neptunes grind," he said when asked for an update on what he and P have been cooking up recently. "We’re doing a couple of things. There’s a videogame soundtrack that’s in the works right now that I can’t speak about, I’m not supposed to, but uh, it’s in the works right now. We just did some work with Miley Cyrus, JAY-Z, blink-182, Lil Uzi Vert, Brandy, Ray-J, Snoh Aalegra, G-Eazy."

Some of the names mentioned have been rumored or outright confirmed for some time now, including blink-182. Surrounding the release of their 2019 album Nine, posts started circulating across Reddit and beyond regarding The Neptunes and Uzi being involved with an EP from Mark Hoppus, Matt Skiba, and Travis Barker.

"We’re at Conway Studios, one of my favorite studios here in L.A… it’s just like Chad, and me, and Pharrell… And so I write these lyrics, I get in the booth and I sing it real quick," Hoppus told Zane Lowe last year. Uzi is said to have later heard the in-progress song, prompting him to ask Pharrell if he could hop on it. "I love stories about back in the day, where somebody is in the studio and somebody else comes in, and happens to be there," he added.

Also mentioned in Chad Hugo's Clash chat are recent sessions he and Pharrell had with The Weeknd. "We were just in the studio with The Weeknd, and that sounds really futuristic," he said. Additionally, per Hugo, the duo has linked with Lil Nas X and Dua Lipa for some recent in-studio crafting.

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